Pennypack Partnership completes Strategic Action Plan for Greenway

A plan for mobilizing conservation and protection efforts along the Pennypack
Creek has been created by a new coalition of conservation organizations,
municipal and county officials, and others sharing a concern for the future of
the watershed. This effort has allowed a new, expanded conservation team to
arise and to define a common plan of action for the Pennypack Creek and its
environs.

This new coalition, the Pennypack Greenway Partnership, developed a vision
and mission for the future conservation work, as follows:

The Pennypack Greenway Partnership envisions a protected greenway which links
and enhances communities, provides plentiful opportunity for recreation,
inspiration and education, and protects an environment where natural systems
thrive.

This vision was used as an overarching framework for defining collaboration
and for selecting conservation initiatives in support of the Partnership's
future work.

Over several months, the Partnership developed mission-driven goals and
identified a short list of selected conservation projects or initiatives which
they will advance in the months and years to come. These initiatives are
wide-ranging, encompassing an array of efforts such as changes in municipal
planning, establishing a trail, and identifying priority lands which would be
top targets for conservation efforts.

KCT worked with the Partnership throughout this strategic conservation
planning effort, helping guide the group in assessing opportunities and risks
and helping focus decisionmaking around a consensual, prioritized plan of
action.

Already, the Strategic Action Plan for the Pennypack Greenway is altering
conservation action in the watershed. Even before the plan was finalized,
implementation of its recommendations was underway. With KCT's assistance, the
Partnership has secured its first grant to fund initial steps in this new
collaborative, quickly moving the group's thoughtful work forward from
conceptual plan to effective conservation action around an important community
asset.

Members of the Pennypack Partnership

Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust

Montgomery County Land Trust

Audubon Pennsylvania

Fairmount Park Commission

GreenSpace Alliance

Montgomery County Planning Department

Philadelphia Water Department

Temple University, Center for Sustainable
Communities

Upper Moreland Township

Pennypack

The Pennypack Greenway is a wooded oasis in a highly built-out setting
at the margins of Philadelphia. Encompassing three protected areas within
both Philadelphia and Montgomery counties (the Pennypack Park, Lorimer
Park, and the Pennypack Preserve), the Pennypack watershed houses over 2600
acres of publicly accessible protected lands. Conservation challenges ...
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